Al- and Ga-doped sputtered ZnO films (AZO, GZO) are semiconducting and metallic, respectively, despite the same electronic valence structure of the dopants. Using hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy we observe that both dopants induce a band in the electronic structure near the Fermi level, accompanied by a narrowing of the Zn 3d/O 2p gap in the valence band and, in the case of GZO, a substantial shift in the Zn 3d. Ga occupies substitutional sites, whereas Al dopants are in both substitutional and interstitial sites. The latter could induce O and Zn defects, which act as acceptors explaining the semiconducting character of AZO and the lack of variation in the optical gap. By contrast, mainly substitutional doping is consistent with the metallic-like behavior of GZO. (C) 2014 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.